2025: Working in Fantastic Learning Systems
I set up Fantastic Learning Systems in 2008 as an educational service that designed resources focused on critical and creative thinking. FLS draws on the insights of learning theorists, cognitive linguists, educational philosophers, and performance theorists.
Sometimes a ‘side-hustle’, always a passion.
My aim remains to link curricula with the effectiveness of a school’s communications with its parents and the local community. I have run numerous programs in school communities in Perth, regional Western Australia, and Melbourne, as well as in the UK, where I lived between 2009 and 2014.
2008 & Continuing: Curriculum Writer
I have published seven textbooks as an Arts curriculum leader, particularly aimed at the Western Australian Certificate of Education (WACE) drama curriculum, are documented:
- “Drama: A Resource for Units 1A-1B” co-authored by Josephine De Rossi and Nicole Stinton.
- “Drama – A Resource for WA Units 2A – 2B” co-authored by Josephine Fantasia and Nicole Stinton. Catalogued by the National Library of Australia (NLA).
- “Drama in performance : year 12 : achieving outcomes in drama and drama studies” authored by Josephine Fantasia. Catalogued by the NLA.
- “OBE – let’s get started : introducing the drama course of study” co-authored by Josephine Fantasia and Nicole Stinton Loke.17 Catalogued by the NLA.
These publications are tailored to support drama teaching and learning within the formal education system of Western Australia.
Three Examples of Textbook Publications (1998 – 2010)
2022 – 2025: English, Humanities & Literacy Teaching
I chose to update my teaching skills by returning to full-time classroom teaching in February 2022, and completed my time in the school in April 2025. Teaching remains my first love, and my three years at the Grange P-12 College in Hoppers Crossing affirmed the importance of the classroom and school environment.
Love teaching
I am grateful for my colleagues who deeply understand the social contract teachers share with their communities. I loved the privilege of standing alongside them and our students. Rediscovering the pleasure of being together, enabled me to gain valuable insights, acquire hard-won skills, while sometimes encountering mystifying processes.
Having first joined the College of Teaching (WA) a generation ago, I humbly submitted myself to updating my Victorian Institute of Teaching (VIT – Reg. No.396557) credentials, as I recognised the importance of keeping skills current for working in schools. I stand in awe of what it means to be a teacher.
Feb 2009 – Oct 2014: Theatre Reviewing London Fringe Theatre
Between 2009 and 2013, I immersed myself in the London Fringe Theatre scene. I attended a wide array of productions across the city. My viewing spanned diverse venues, from established houses like the Old Vic, Young Vic, The Globe, Barbican, and Almeida to prominent fringe theatres such as the Blue Elephant Camberwell, Union Theatre Southwark, Southwark Playhouse, Finborough Theatre West Brompton, the Arcola in Dalston, and Tristan Bates Theatre in Covent Garden.
The Play is the Thing!
During this period, I actively reviewed numerous productions, extensively engaging in a comprehensive understanding of contemporary London theatre.
2002 – 2008: Creative Director, Biscuit Factory Arts Centre
Between 2001 and 2008, I was the Creative Director of the Biscuit Factory Arts Centre in Fremantle, Western Australia. In that capacity, I devised and implemented over thirty after-school and holiday drama and animation projects ,for over 2000 young people. My specific focus was on developing literacy and thinking skills. During that time, I was awarded several grants to produce education programmes for local schools, youth festival organisations and arts for young people with special needs.
Examples Programs & Initiatives,
The kNOw nonSENSE DRAMA LITERACY & PHILOSOPHY PROGRAM for 4 to 12 year olds uses strategies in DRAMA, LITERACY AND PHILOSOPHY. The methodology involved an exploration of the five senses that then went onto ooking at amazing world of inventions. In essence, the mission to young people was how the Arts and the Sciences allow us to see the world in new and different ways.
Example Annual Program: The program uses live performance, video and audio recordings, terrific texts and animation to investigate knowing the facts and make-believe about our very real and the highly attractive make-believe worlds.
Other programs looked at the world of games and sport. Are games a form of ‘make-believe’? Are video games interested in showing us something about the real world or are they purely for entertainment?
For instance:
For Early Childhood,
A) Zing! Bang! Pop! An exploration of ordinary sights and sounds
- imaginative ways of seeing and hearing & playing with light and sound;
- how our eyes and ears play tricks on us; and
- how sights and sounds work with and against each other to make sense or
nonsense.
For Middle Primary,
B) Gibberish, Jokes and Other Funny Stuff: An investigation about speaking and
listening and how
- we say serious and funny things
- we say one thing but and really mean something else
- we draw attention to ourselves through what we say and how we say it
- the human voice can be amplified, distorted and made clear.
For Upper Primary,
C) Illuminate: An investigation of how we deal with TIME to
- we remember the past,
- reflect on the present ,
- have visions of the future.
Public Performances
Events were staged under WordPlay Theatre for Young People through which young people were given the experience of working towards public performances.
Creativity Café for parents
I also ran information and ‘research focused’ parent events on education and child-raising topics. My belief was that the unravelling of ideas and experiences about both should be done in ‘good company’, so that we enjoy our collective and individual responsibilities of nurturing creative young people.
The Creativity Café was about the FUN of bringing up kids and getting in touch and sifting through the ‘latest and greatest’ information about arts education and the importance of creativity as a way of life!
Jan 1990 to Dec 2004 Researcher & University Lecturer
Qualifications:
- 1972 – 1974 Bachelor of Arts (English), University of Western Australia.
- 1975 Diploma of Education, University of Western Australia.
- 1989 – 1990 Master of Arts Preliminary Course, University of Western Australia.
- 1997 PhD, University of Sydney.
Awards and Honours:
- 1972 Commonwealth University Scholarship
- 1988 Awarded the Southern Districts Performing Arts Award for contribution to the Youth Arts by the Armadale-Kelmscott Rotary Club.
- 1990 Awarded an Australian Postgraduate Research Award.
- 1997 Eva Veronika Vidak Prize for the Best PhD Thesis in Australian Literature, University of Sydney.
- 2002 First prize in The Australian Excellence in Educational Publication “Teacher Reference” section for Year 11 Drama in Performance
Publications
- 2006 – 2009 Co-writer: Books 1, 2 & 3 Drama Course of Studies Textbooks & interactive CDs for Impact Publishing, WA.
- 2002 – 2007 Director, Researcher & Writer: Research & development of 40+ community based and school-based projects at the Biscuit Factory Arts Centre INC, South Fremantle
- 2002 Co-writer: Year 12 Drama in Performance, B & G Resource Enterprises Perth.
- 2001 Co-writer: Drama in Performance, Yr 11 Drama Studies Text Book , B & G Enterprises, Perth; Writer: “Seeing is Believing: using new technologies in arts education”, Australian Drama Educators Magazine
- 2000 Researcher & Writer: Assessing and Reporting Outcomes, a support package for teachers K-12 on using the Curriculum Council of WA’s Curriculum Framework and EDWA’s Student Outcome Statements
- 1999 Researcher & Writer: Primary Arts: An Outcomes Approach (Perth: Arts Accord, WA)
- 1997 Co-writer of the Arts Learning Area Statement of the Curriculum Framework of Western Australia
- 1995 Researcher & Writer: Curriculum support materials for Secondary Education Authority for Year 12 Drama, Post-1960s Australian Drama; Keynote Address & Writer: “Who’s pulling the strings”, Australian Drama Educators Magazine, Vol 1, No.1 March
- 1994 Writer: Curriculum Support Materials for Secondary Education Authority, Year 11 Drama on Pre-1960 Australian Drama
Grants Won
- 2007 $5000 youth arts grant from Community Arts (WA) for Talkin’ ‘bout my generation performance project.
- 2005 – 2006 $3000/ year contract from City of Fremantle for Fremantle Children’s Festival to create classroom-based arts and environment projects based around Samson Park, Samson.
- 2003 $9000 Contracted writer of the Drama Course of Study, Curriculum Council of WA.
- 2002 – 2004 $150,000 of a total of $1.5million for ARC Grant Creativity and the Arts Linkage Project with Dr Felicity Haynes, Senior Lecturer in Graduate School of Education UWA
- 2001 $1000 grant for curriculum materials for DramaWest’s Good Answers publication
- $1000 grant for video script for DramaWest’s Good Answers practical examination
- 2000 $1300 grant for curriculum materials for DramaWest’s Good Answers publication
- 1998 $2000 grant to give professional develop in Discovering Democracy Project.
- $250 from Curriculum Council/ DramaWest for writing support materials for Yr 12 TEE Drama Studies materials
- 1996 – 1997 $80,000 NPDP grant to research, administer and publish findings of Action Research in an outcomes approach to the Arts; $1500 for contract writing for the Assessment and Reporting Branch, Education Department of Western Australia; $300 for writing Arts Learning Area Statement for Curriculum Council of WA.; $3000 research grant from Education Department of WA on Assessing and Reporting Outcomes, a support package for teachers K-12 on using the Curriculum Council of WA’s Curriculum Framework and EDWA’s Student Outcome Statements
- 1995 $150 for contract writing curriculum support materials for Secondary Education Authority for Year 12 Drama, Post-1960s Australian Drama
- 1994 $150 for contract writing curriculum support materials for Secondary Education Authority, Year 11 Drama on Pre-1960 Australian Drama.
- 1990 – 1994 $39,000 for Australian Postgraduate Research Award (APRA) for doctoral research in theatre entrepreneurship at UWA (1990 – 1992) transferring to USYD (1993 – 1996)
1976 – 1991: Teacher
2001
Semester 2: Sessional lecturer in Theatre Studies, Curtin University of Technology
Semester 1: Tutor in Renaissance Studies, University of Western Australia
2000
F/T Drama Director, Perth College Mt Lawley.
1998 – 1999
F/T Curriculum Improvement Officer, Cannington Education District Office
1997
F/T Years 7 to 12 Drama Teacher, All Saints’ College, Bull Creek WA
1996
May – Dec: F/T Curriculum Officer in Assessment and Reporting, Central Office Education Department of WA
Feb – April: F/T Year 12 Drama Teacher, John Curtin College of the Arts, Fremantle
1995
Sem 2 Sessional lecturer in drama education, Edith Cowan University, Mt Lawley
Sem 1 Fractional appointment Lecturer Level A, Theatre and Drama Studies, Murdoch University
1992
P/T Theatre and Drama Studies Tutor, University of Western Australia
1989 – 1990
P/T Drama teacher, City Beach SHS
1985 – 1988
Co-director Wordplayers Theatre In Education Troupe.
1979 – 1984
P/T Drama Teacher, St Joachim’s High School, Victoria Park, WA
P/T Artistic director, Southern Youth Theatre, Gosnells, WA
1978
F/T English Literature Teacher, Sacred Heart College
1976 – 77
F/T Drama teacher, Newman Senior College, Churchlands WA
